


Return to Dust

by Burn_It_totheground



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Atlas - Freeform, Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 08:54:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20672666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burn_It_totheground/pseuds/Burn_It_totheground
Summary: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. All things must return to where they first began after the defeat of Salem.





	Return to Dust

There was no wind in Atlas that day, no sound to drown out the everyday noise produced by the floating metropolis, nothing to carry away the sound and provide a false sense of quiet. Only the stark realization that no one in the kingdom truly possessed actual privacy in which to conduct their affairs. Not an acceptable place to hold a funeral. That’s why the services for heroes that died while defeating Salem and her forces were being held down in Mantle; in a graveyard far away from the people who couldn’t begin to grasp how close they had been from being wiped away from the face of Remnant.

Sure the kingdom knew that the military had defeated a massive Grimm invasion with the help of young huntsmen from the other kingdoms, General Ironwood had made sure of that. There had been massive parades in the streets, celebrations that were live streamed across the CCT towers to the furthest corners of their signals. Young students who had taken part in the battle where given their Huntsman licenses in a massive ceremony. Their young faces hailed as victorious heroes. But no medals were given to the dead, no acknowledgements of their contributions by the citizens of the world’s most advanced society. 

Ruby wondered if the people who lived outside the kingdom knew that something had happened. The Grimm that plagued their lives were gone. She wondered if they had received part of Atlas’s signal, that maybe they had gotten the news and that the weight of just trying to survive through the day. She wondered if there were families who breathed a sigh of relief knowing that their missing loved one’s faced one less challenge out in the wilds. All of these thoughts flowed through her mind as she watched the metal box holding Oscar’s body be lowered into the ground. 

“We did it, we actually won! I can feel it, he’s finally gone.” had been his last words.

It turned out that having your mortal soul merged with that of an immortal wizard whose ex-wife was hellbent on destroying all of humanity and faunus-kind was bad for your health. Even after uniting all of Remnant together and defeating Salem, you couldn’t split apart two souls that had moulded into one. The fate of one was tied into the fate of the other, so when Ozpin’s soul finally left Oscar’s body, it left through a heart attack.

Ruby looked at remaining members of their group as they stood around the grave. Jaune stood straight faces as Ren held onto Nora while she cried into his chest. Yang had her prosthetic around Blake, her bomber jacket wrapped over the faunus’s shoulders to ward off the winter cold. Weiss stood next to her underneath a gray cloak to conceal her presence from the eyes of Atlas, the two of them holding hands. Qrow stood leaning on a shovel next to the pile of fresh dirt. General Ironwood had taken time from rebuilding the kingdom to pay his own respects, he cleared his throat and began to speak.

“We are gathered here today to pay our respects to our friend and comrade Ozp-”

“Shut the fuck up Jimmy. We’re here to say goodbye to the kid, not him.” interrupted Qrow. Ironwood raised his hands and took a step back, waiting for someone else to speak.

The group stood quietly, after a few minutes they began to say their goodbyes.

“We’re sorry you got dragged into this Oscar.” said Blake.

“We’re sorry that we couldn’t bring you home, we’re sorry that we didn’t even ask where home was for you,” said Ren.

“We’re sorry for judging you for what Ozpin did.” said Nora

“I’m sorry for hitting you.” said Qrow, “Even if Ozpin deserved it.” 

“We’re sorry that you didn’t choose this fight Oscar, even though you felt like you needed to help.” said Jaune. 

“You did your best.” said Yang.

“I’m glad that we got to meet each other,” said Weiss.

They looked up at Ruby as she stared down into the grave. Weiss gripped her hand tighter as tears dripped from her face onto the frozen ground. “I’m glad we could be friends Oscar,” she said, “Even though we didn’t know you for very long, I’m still glad that we were still friends.”

Yang wrapped her other arm across her sisters’ shoulder. “We couldn’t have done it without you Oscar.” she said as she flashed a smile.

Weiss nodded, “You saved the airship and got us to Atlas.”

“You didn’t run away, even though you had every reason to,” said Blake, the faunus resting her head on Yang’s shoulder.

“You fought well.” said Ren as he and Nora came and stood with team RWBY.

“You broke some legs!” said Nora as she stopped crying and motioned for Jaune to come stand with the rest of them.

Ruby smiled as her friends all gathered together. “Thank you Oscar, for everything,” she took Ozpin’s cane out from under her cloak, “I’m glad that we could be friends.” She dropped the immortal headmaster’s weapon on top of the casket inside of the grave.

“Goodbye Oscar, we’ll miss you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Had to bury a friend today. Thought that writing a story about burying your friends might help.


End file.
